WALSALL’S Manny Smith has become the latest Saddlers’ starlet to attract attention from higher divisions, with Albion and Nottingham Forest believed to be monitoring the centre-back.

The 21-year-old Brummie has been earning rave reviews in League One and his progress has come on in leaps and bounds since he became a first-team regular last season.

Now the former Solihull College student could be set to become the latest star to drop off the Banks’s Stadium conveyor belt and earn Walsall a profit.

Blues defender Scott Dann, Leicester striker Matty Fryatt, Cardiff stopper Anthony Gerrard and Celtic star Dan Fox are just four examples of players who have gone on to bigger and better things in recent years and Smith could follow suit.

Forest and the Baggies are keeping a close eye on the 6ft 2in youngster.

Smith signed his first professional deal with Walsall in May 2006, before going on to captain the club’s reserves and enjoy a loan spell at non-league Halesowen Town.

The departures of Dann, Gerrard and Ian Roper have seen Smith clamber up the defensive pecking order.